A Brazilian Barbeque Dinner Experience: Natalia and Mandy will be able to help us select the foods from the barbeque buffet. They have recommended this restaurant.

Date: Tuesday evening, JULY 13TH

Time: 7:30 PM

Restaurant: Cafe Belo

Location: 417 Waverly Street - Framingham – MA – 01702 - (508) 872-8099. Café Belô offers free parking.

Cost: $16.50 which includes a special price we have been offered for this dinner which includes shared desserts. It is an “all you can eat” barbecue experience. No one will leave hungry!

Transportation:by car-please offer to drive others if you have the privilege of driving to the meeting.

REQUEST: Please offer a ride to Magda, our newest au pair arriving on Friday. She will be living in South Brookline on Gerry Rd (Hancock Village).

NECESSARY: YOUR EMAIL RESPONSE TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE1

PLEASE make sure YOUR HOST PARENTS KNOW ABOUT THIS SO YOU HAVE THE TIME OFF THAT EVENING. Because so many of you are away on summer week ends, I use mid week meetings.

These meetings are mandatory and required: I like to see all of the au pairs every month. The better I know you, the better I can be of help when you feel a need. I am proud of the caring community that this group has and being together monthly supports your relationships with one another as well as provides opportunities for newer au pairs to meet you. A few of the au pairs are away with their host families. Otherwise, I expect all au pairs to attend.

ALL AU PAIRS ARE WELCOME! Please invite friends to join us.

I must have a count of how many the restaurant should plan for.

This will be a very fun meeting as well as a cultural experience of delicious Brazilian food.

Summer always means a much more hectic schedule for my family, and I rely on our au pair to keep my children safe and entertained once they’re out of school. She’s also a much needed extra set of hands at all of our summer activities. How do you plan to survive this busy season?

We have many qualified, carefully screened candidates who can help you manage your busy household. And in honor of Father’s Day, we’ll offer you a significant savings AND a free Nintendo Wii gaming console when you apply this weekend! Wii games are great for the whole family to play together!

Apply to Cultural Care Au Pair between Wednesday, June 16th and Tuesday, June 22nd using promotion code, PCWII2010 to earn:
- $75 application fee waiver
- $625 program fee discount
- Complimentary overseas connection service during the matching process (a $150 value)
The total value of this promotion is $850!*

Apply now to take advantage of the opportunity to save on our program and once you welcome your au pair into your home, you will receive your Wii gaming console!

We hope that you will take advantage of this great savings and apply now for free while you work towards securing your summer childcare needs.

LCCs Kristina Shimkus (far left), Ryan Levesque (center) and Katrina Ohl (far right) and some of their au pairs hosting a very successful yard sale for Kids First in MA!

A Kids First fundraiser outside Boston, MA last weekend raked in over $1,300 from the sale of items donated by host families, office staff and Local Childcare Coordinators including furniture, household goods, baby and childrens items, toys, books, sporting equipment and much more. With Cultural Care Au Pair’s match, Kids First will benefit from over $2,600! Au pairs from Lincoln, Lexington, Weston and Waltham and neighboring towns helped staff the event and many more helped prepare in the days leading up to the sale.

As a caregiver to a child, there will come a time when he/she will have something to tell you and will ask you to keep it a secret. It is also common for a caregiver to witness a behavior that is undesirable and the child might beg you to keep it from their parents. You are not alone with struggling over this request. If you put yourself in the child’s place you will see that most likely he/she is scared and is not able to make a rational decision about what to do on their own. As their caregiver, you can provide thoughtful responses and feedback, which will support the child in a time of need without making a promise you most likely will not be able to keep.

When a child requests secrecy it is easy to believe that this is what they need, and in an effort to be liked, a promise is made to keep their secret before even knowing more about the situation. In these types of circumstances, however, what he/she truly needs from you, as a significant adult in their life, is a supportive, empathetic and honest response to their feelings; as well as to consider the teaching moment that the opportunity provides. A supportive, empathetic response conveys that you have the child’s best interest at heart; such as, “I can see that you are nervous / scared, but I am here for you and we can figure this problem out together.” Responding with honesty includes acknowledging the importance of the trust that the family has given to you to keep their child’s physical safety and well being a priority.

A secret often leads to a lie which harms both your relationship with the family, and the child’s relationship with both you and their parents. In these situations, it is important to figure out what is needed for that child when they request secrecy: For example, you can respond by saying: “I can not promise you that I can keep this secret because that may not be what’s most helpful or safe. What I can promise is that I will listen carefully and then we will discuss what to do together.” Or, “I want to help you and one of the ways that I help is knowing when we can handle an issue on our own, and when we need to ask for your parents help.”

A secret is difficult for a child to bear alone. Difficult secrets lead to misunderstandings and feelings of shame. It is important to help the child understand that you will support them in getting the proper help and/or righting the mistake; and that you will not keep their secret before knowing what it is and thinking through the best approach. A request from a child to keep a secret is a sign that they are ashamed of their actions or simply embarrassed. As the caregiver it is your job to reassure them that they do not have to hold the feelings and behavior on their own: you are there to support them and to help them decide the best course of action: This is what the child is truly asking you to do. As with any topic, it is good practice to bring this discussion to your next meeting with your host parents to discuss together ways of modeling open communication in the family.

I can’t say that I’m the biggest sports enthusiast that you will ever meet, but I have to acknowledge that the rest of the world is pretty interested in a little something called The World Cup which started on June 11^th in South Africa. Taking place every four years, this football (or what we call soccer) tournament has more viewers than the Olympics or the Super Bowl. The final match of the 2006 World Cup was seen by more than 715 million people worldwide!!!  With 32 competing teams from nations around the world, this is certainly an event that the au pairs in your area will be talking about. Brazil, Italy, and Germany lead the world in titles and so the spirit of competition is certainly strong as the tournament kicks off. Take advantage of the opportunity this tournament presents in your group by hosting a World Cup party for your next monthly meeting.  Do you have someone in your group who can teach a few soccer moves to everyone else? Invite them to be your World Cup Trainer at the meeting. Ask au pairs to share the cheer that they use in their country to encourage their team. Ask them to bring a dish representing their country so it can be a truly international event. Even if you’ve already planned your monthly meeting, you can still get a buzz going by posting information and fun updates on your website and you can also ask your host families if they are watching it with their au pair as you make your next monthly calls. Recognizing something that is as exciting and important as this to so many of the au pairs in your area is a great way to continue to build your connection with them. While you may not have realized it (just like me), it turns out that the World Cup is kind of a big deal!

For more information on the World Cup, check out the official website:  http://www.fifa.com/index.html

Salt Art 
Ages 3 to 7

You can create some really beautiful effects with this salt art craft. Kids also enjoy coloring the salt with food coloring before painting with it.

What you’ll need: 

• Newspaper
• School glue
• Construction paper
• Paintbrush
• Large tray or cookie sheet
• Plastic cup
• Egg carton (optional)
• Sandpaper (optional)

For each color of sand you want to use: 

• 1/2 cup of salt
• Food coloring
• Ziploc bag

How to make it: 

• 1. Pour halfa cup of salt into a Ziploc bag and add several drops of food coloring.
• 2. Close the bag tightly, making sure that most of the air is out. (You can add more food coloring to get more vibrant colors of “sand.”)
• 3. Use your fingers (on the outside of the bag) to mix the color into the salt. Pour the salt in a thin layer on the newspaper and let it dry.
• 4. Repeat this for each color, giving each its own piece of newspaper. (You can use half of a page.) When all colors are dry, pick up the papers one at a time and pour the salt back into Ziploc bags or into separate compartments in an egg carton.
• 5. Mix together glue and water in equal amounts. (If you use two tablespoons of water, use two tablespoons of glue.)
• 6. Put a piece of construction paper in the tray. Use a pencil to draw the design you want and then use the paintbrush to paint (glue) the areas where you want ONLY THE FIRST COLOR to stick.
• 7. Use your fingers to sprinkle the first color over the areas you painted. Wait a few minutes to allow the salt to stick and then hold the paper over the tray to let the “extra” salt fall off of the painting.
• 8. Pour the “extra” salt back into its container - you can use it again. Repeat stepsix andseven until you have all of the colors you want in your painting. Voila! You have created “sand” art.

For more crafts, visit: http://crafts.kaboose.com/

 About my week at the training school in New York:

The days I had waited so very long for, were absolutely fantastic. I had an incredible good week when I was at the training school in New York. When I arrived at the airport in New York, I was incredibly excited. Both nervous and happy. I quickly met some girls who also were going to the Cultural Care’s training school. It helped to have others around me, all of which were just as excited and expectant!

Week in New York went quickly, way too quickly. But I can honestly say that I learned a lot. I thought that I had enough knowledge, but I was wrong. The teacher we had, Kathy, helped us through the week in a good way! We learned so many different and interesting things. We used many different methods to teach us different things. Had presentations, we were creative, we watched movies and we had conversations.

I will never forget the cool and fun evenings we had together at the school and all the incredible people I met at school. The au pairs that I met so nice, understanding and helpful. We were all there as a groups, and we all was so exicted to start or year as an au pair. This helped a lot! I am sure that we all improved or English skills. After the week I was so much more comfortable to speak English, I also learned a couple of new words and sentences. Something that was really good, because it made me less nervouse to meet my host family.

It is now almost six months ago since I was at the training school, it have gone so fast!
I still speak with a lot of the boys & girls, that I met at the school. We share our year together.  Even the au pairs who live on the other side of USA, I talk to on the phone and on the computer. When I need an advice or two, I turn up in the educational school book we had at the training school.

So I can hounestly say that the week in New York, prepared me for my year as an au pair. And I also got to discover one of the coolest places ever, NEW YORK!

Best regards from Hanna Maria Wiborg, Shaker Heights, Ohio(the best place in America)

Many of the recipes you will find here, courtesy of Discovery Health, contain healthy ingredients and are not too difficult to prepare-some items require very little to no cooking, so they should be easy for everyone! If your kids are old enough, get them to help!

Be sure to involve your host parents as well.  If there is something new you want to try, be sure to check with them first.   There may be food allergies, or a history of such things, and it could be very dangerous to introduce or even expose your host kids to some food items; peanuts are a good example of this.  Some peanut allergies can be quite severe and could cause very serious health issues, so if you aren’t sure, ASK! It’s also helpful to ask, as some families follow special diets, like vegetarianism, for health or religious purposes.

Kid-Friendly Breakfasts

Kid-Friendly Lunches

Kid-Friendly Dinners

HAPPY COOKING

American’s love to volunteer! As a country, we like to root for the underdog and as individual citizens, we like to make a difference. One way an au pair (and host family) can really take advantage of the cultural exchange opportunity present in the au pair program is to volunteer.

For au pairs, its a great way to meet Americans, learn something new about your host country and become active in a charity or cause that is important to you. You will have the opportunity to compare how particular needs are fulfilled here in the States, that are handled differently in your home country.

For host families, volunteering with your au pair and kids is a wonderful opportunity to share the importance of this very American trait with your international au pair and your children. Volunteering together can spark conversations that otherwise might not occur.

For more information about volunteer opportunities, check out this site. It matches volunteers with different organizations based on time availability, interest and location. Also, consider calling your local hospital, library or YMCA for additional opportunities.

Never leave a child unsupervised in or around water in the home. Empty all sinks, tubs and buckets immediately after use.

Do not rely on a bath support ring to keep a baby safe in the tub without adult supervision.

Never leave a child unsupervised in or around a swimming pool or spa, even for a moment. All wading and inflatable pools should be empty when not in use.

Teach children to practice safe water habits.

Children should never swim alone.

Never let older children swim in unsupervised areas like quarries, canals or ponds. Older children are at risk of drowning when they overestimate their swimming ability.

Make sure children are swimming in designated areas in oceans, lakes and rivers. Look for clear water with little or no current and check the depth of the water before swimming or diving.
Children over age 3 should learn to swim from qualified instructors but caregivers should keep in mind that lessons do not make children “drown-proof.” Never rely on a PFD or swimming lessons to protect a child.

Adults and children should learn infant and child CPR.

Children should not dive in water unless an adult is present and knows that the water is more than nine feet deep.

Adults should not rely on pool covers to prevent children from drowning. Water must be kept from collecting on the surface of pool covers.

Children and adults should wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved PFD when on a boat, near open bodies of water or when participating in water sports.